


On Sundered Souls and Tangos

by sorensen



Series: Of Panic Attacks and Urges to Hug [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, LITERALLY, POV Alternating, Panic Attacks, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 15:41:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20695973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorensen/pseuds/sorensen
Summary: They might love each other, but there's still a lot for Emet-Selch and Persephone to work out.Some things are better said without words.





	On Sundered Souls and Tangos

**Author's Note:**

> Uguhhhhhhh ksjghksghjksjhgkasjhgkasg first time writing smut?

"Soooo...." Persephone asked once they got back home. She threw herself haphazardly on the couch. Hades slowly strolled into the apartment behind her, carefully removing his boots and jacket, unlike her. She was quite enjoying getting the sofa he was still definitely going to be sleeping on dirty.

"Heathen, one of these days you _ will _ break the couch doing that, and when you're sprawled on the floor with a piece of wood going through your arm or some other such injury, I'm just going to laugh."

Persephone stretched out further on the couch, pointedly wiping her boots along the arms of the chair and enjoying the twitch Hades made in response. "Just think of all the blood you'd be left cleaning up." She considered the couch carefully for a moment before going for the kill. "Have your architect skills slipped that much during your tempering that you can't even properly create a durable couch anymore?" 

The look he sent her in response would probably have made a lesser woman moderately afraid for her life, but she just smirked at him in response. The question had been honest as much as it had been to rile him up. She _ had _ sent an axe made of light through his body less than a month ago. Persephone reluctantly pulled her legs up, sitting sideways on the couch to leave room for Hades to sit on the end, who then did so like she supposed a normal person might.

“As I experienced it, when you used the white auracite, it weakened Zodiark’s grasp on my soul. Killing my vessel with the blade of light to my chest flooded me with enough light that he withdrew entirely. It was at that point that I remembered you, my dear Heathen, and I was left formless until I was able to acquire another of my clones.” Hades reached over grabbed her hands, pulling her closer to him, Persephone going along willingly. She was just as eager to be close to him as he seemed to be to her after all the time that had passed.

“To truly answer your question, yes, I am fine. It shall take time to entirely cleanse millennia of dark aether from my own, but the two are not as incompatible as, say, Fandaniel would have with her earth or Emmerololth with ice.”

"It’s a shame Halmarult isn’t around. We could use his neutral aether," Persephone said sadly, leaning sideways against his chest and sitting on his lap. Hades was hugging her close when she added, "How would we even begin with our wayward Emissary? To separate the darkness of his aether from Zodiark’s own will be nearly impossible."

“I would also beg leave to question why you seem so willing to nearly kill yourself again, but I suppose I am asking the wrong woman that question. Of course, you’d immediately throw yourself back into danger.” Persephone stuck her tongue out at Hades in response, but shrugged. It was true. She’d gladly risk herself if it meant helping others. Throwing herself into danger without thinking it through came to her as naturally as Hades planning seventeen steps ahead.

"I don't think the light itself would be a problem anymore. Light _ is _ my element as much as Death is yours, I think it was just a struggle trying to contain as much as I was with the amount of soul I had rejoined at the time. Once Ardbert and I fused, it was a much easier thing to do."

"That would still leave us in need a source of that much Light in the first place, and since you seem to be _ against _ turning entire shards toward one element, we would need to find alternative means."

Honestly, Persephone had no idea what they were going to do, just that she typically found where there was a will, there would be a way _ eventually _. Maybe she could ask Hydaelyn about it? She’d still need to find a way to communicate with the primal, and she had rarely heard from Hydaelyn as of late.

"Still. If I can find a way to free them, to free everyone, I want to do it."

“Agreed.” They snuggled together for a while, just enjoying being with each other for the time. Eventually, Persephone grew twitchy, she’d never been able to stay in one place for very long, and she’d wanted to ask him about what he wanted to do about their bond. She’d been worried to do so, had debated doing so earlier, but she knew they needed to do it eventually.

“We should talk about the bond…” Persephone said hesitatingly. 

“What about it?” Hades’ voice immediately stiff, and if she hadn’t already questioned bringing up the bond, she would’ve now. 

“You, erm, you still have part of my soul I think?”

“Yes, and as I said, what about it?” Hades' voice had gone practically hostile, and Persephone started to inch back toward the other half of the couch, tried not to be hurt when he let her do so, his hands practically leaping away from her to clench his robes instead. He was entirely shut off, and she suddenly regretted very few things more than she did bringing the topic up.

Of course, he didn’t want to talk about it. A few weeks ago he said he wouldn’t even consider killing her to be murder, why would he want to be eternally bonded to her.

“Nevermind. We… we don’t need to do this now.” She said, trying to hold back her tears. Hopefully, she could bury the feelings far enough down that he wouldn’t notice either. With how angry he seemed to be, there was a chance she’d be able to hide them long enough that he’d forget he could look.

“Perhaps we both require time to think this through more.” Persephone’s eyes darted to his, but he wasn’t even looking at her now, was refusing to even _ look her in the eyes _.

“What are you trying to say, Hades? That you don’t want to do this, or that you don’t want _ me _ ? Because I know what I want.” She’d practically _ begged _ him not to break her heart before, but here it was, breaking all the same.

“I think that for now, you should return to your friends, and I will remain here. I meant what I said before, that I do love you, but I believe we both need time to sort this out.”

Besides the little bits that he’d intentionally shared with her, she didn’t have the ability to read his soul anymore, and Persephone felt that hole in their bond like she’d felt knife wounds. It was worse knowing _ she’d _ done this to him, to them. The more she thought about it, the more upset and frustrated it left her, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to be as far away as possible, as if distance would lessen the bond, even when she knew that wasn’t how it worked. 

She wanted it _ off _ , suddenly, wanted to keep all her spiraling panic and aching _ need _ for him to herself, her pleas to _ pleasepleaseplease _ don’t do this Hades, she didn’t know how much of it he could feel and she _ hated _ that she didn’t have his side to know if he felt the same. She needed to _ go _ , she needed to go _ now. _She needed to be as far away from him as possible.

“Okay.” She said quietly. “You know where to find me when you want to. If you ever want to.”

Hades said nothing, and by the time he’d realized the implications of her words, Persephone had already called up her aether and teleported away.

\-------------------------

She died. Over and over, Hades felt her death through her piece of soul. She'd been crushed, stabbed, and had fallen to her death over and over and _ over _. For a week, all her small piece of spirit sent back to him was death and misery, and Hades felt every moment of it, stewing in his own foolish misery.

Whatever it was that he'd sent her off to fight against alone, it hadn’t gone well for her, but somehow time after time she got up and was fighting. Damned Hydaelyn and her 'Echo'. When his warrior finally conquered what she had been battling, her soul was lashing out for its remaining pieces, desperate to use their strength to help her regain her own. Did the damned primal even know the damage she caused to her Champion's soul each time she brought her back?

It was easier to blame Hydaelyn than himself. 

When she’d brought up the bond he’d _ panicked _. He had no idea what she was going to say and he’d instantly assumed that she wanted the piece of her soul back and he couldn’t let her have it. Not yet. This piece of her soul in him was all that had kept him from letting his aether be scattered to the winds.

He should’ve known when he pushed her away what would happen. That’d she’d be distracted. Frayed. And yet, he’d let her go into whatever mess it was that her merry band had gotten themselves into with only her pathetic friends at her side. Persephone was far from helpless without him, but he’d finally remembered that while _ he _ could tell what she was feeling, she could not do the same in return. She could not tell that this was _ his _ fault, not hers. Never hers. He was the one who had done so many terrible things that he could never possibly make up for. Things she would learn if she was able to access the piece of her soul again.

Worse yet, Hades sensed something that was even more amiss than normal. Why was _ she _ near Persephone? Before he thought overlong about it, Hades opened a portal and walked through to where he knew the warrior was.

“Phosphorus,” Hades said, startling Persephone from where she’d been training with Ryne on the Crystarium grounds. She sent a glare back his way at the use of the dreaded title, which he completely ignored as he continued, “Are you aware that your gunbreaker is currently watching over the Oracle of Darkness?”

“Excuse me, what?” Persephone said as both she and Ryne turned toward Hades in shock. Ryne had gasped, dropping her daggers in the process.

“That woman he has is Gaia, the Oracle of Darkness.”

“I… no, we had no idea. She attacked me on top of Eden. She had no idea what she was doing here, and she hasn’t woken up since.”

"Not that I'm not thankful for that information, and will be handling it later, why are you here, Emet-Selch?" Persephone asked, sheathing her own daggers. “I thought we needed ‘time’ to ‘sort everything out’. She was looking anywhere but at him, and Hades watched the young Oracle of Light duck down to retrieve her wayward daggers before scurrying off with an “Oh I think Thancred is calling me, thanks for the practice, Persephone!”

His warrior’s words were harsh, but her soul revealed the truth. _ Longing _ that was practically oozing off her soul. Abruptly, he could feel her shut everything off and Hades flinched. In the past days since she’d finally stopped dying all the time it had happened occasionally, and he hadn’t thought overmuch about it. He’d gotten so used to the subtle hints at her emotions that what she’d done was akin to putting out a candle with a bucket of water. The worst part was how _ quiet _ everything suddenly felt. 

Feeling her die had been misery. He’d known that she’d get back up, that Hydaelyn was not done with his warrior, and it was impossible to describe feeling even the fraction of her pain with her every death. This, though? This was worse. She was just _ gone. _ This, this is what he’d been afraid of when she’d asked about the bond, that without her piece of soul all that would be left in him was _ nothing. _ Blindly, desperately he searched his soul for hers, trying to find the link between them, it was there still, but _ silent _ in a way it hadn’t been since the tempering. What had she done? He _ needed _ that. What had she done, whathadshedone _ whathadshedonewhathadshedonewhathad- _

He saw Persephone frown at him, her eyes flickering between his own. Tentatively, a small bit of her soul reopened in his, and Hades released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. For that moment, all he could remember was a millennia of that feeling, of a piece being missing but not knowing it was lost, of being empty and so very _ alone _. He’d always attributed it to the loss of Amaurot, of their people, but that had never been it. It had always been her. He’d rebuilt an entire city just to feel closer with the other half of his soul he had not even known was missing.

“Hades-” She began, reaching out toward him, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it. Much as she’d stopped him in Amaurot a week prior, he was suddenly desperate to do the same. It was cowardly, but he _ couldn’t _ let her turn it off again, he would not go back to that.

“Be careful with The Oracle of Darkness,” was all Hades said before he opened another portal and walked away. 

\-----------------

It was another week before he gave in. A week where he’d carefully watched the bond between them, saw that despite feeling her temptation to hide away, she hadn’t yet turned it off again. When Hades best guessed Persephone would be sleeping, he teleported into her rooms in the Crystarium, as far away from her bed as possible to prevent the sound from waking her. Once he confirmed that she was indeed asleep, he let the carefully constructed mask of ‘I’m doing just fine without you’ fade away. He drank in the sight of her like a man dying of thirst. His perfectly imperfect wife.

He'd be lying if he said a part of him hadn't wanted to hurt her when he sent her off without him, but he'd regretted it immediately. Twelve millennia he'd been without his wife, and the moment he had her back, he'd pushed her away. He'd let the part of him that was still raw with tempering, with the ache of her separation from his soul take over.

The moment she'd teleported away she'd taken what remained of his heart with her. He'd been lucky that Zodiark had sheltered him from the pain of her separation. It was the only thing the damned Primal had ever done right. He couldn't even imagine how this fractured piece of his wife's soul managed even as well as she did after that kind of tear. Bonded souls weren't _ meant _to be able to be separated. She’d have that scar on her being forever. She’d always had panic attacks, even before the fall, but they’d likely be worse now. Hades made a mental note to read up further on how best to help her with such things if he was lucky enough to gain her forgiveness.

Blinking, the Ascian adjusted his sight to show the aether in the air. _ There _. Like a slowly dripping faucet, a piece of the warrior's soul was running off of her, forming the smallest of streams leading to him. She’d been able to shut off the bond by stopping that flow, and the piece left in him had gone silent in response. His link to her own, his piece of soul, that was gone entirely from hers.

He’d carried that piece of Persephone’s soul with him through the millennia, a piece that had literally held his own together after the Warrior had sundered Zodiark’s tempering from him. The piece of her soul that had fed him love and hope when he’d been ready to let that final fight be the end of him. When he’d _ wanted _ that to be the end of him.

They'd joked about being married, but he wasn't even sure they could call what they had that anymore. Typically the bond would be a river traveling in both directions passing emotions, thoughts, and memories along between them. What they had now was not that. It'd be painful, but so easy to remove the fragment of her that remained in his and end everything right now. Persephone had left it there though. His Heathen had never given up hope that one day he'd be free again, even when he'd been crazed enough not to recognize her. The piece that remained had fought for him even when he didn’t know he should be fighting. After it had spent millennia within his soul, it was _ his _, and he was terrified she would want it back.

That piece _ knew _ everything he’d done for the millennia since the fall.

He’d nearly killed her. He’d nearly killed destroyed the soul of the person he’d cared about most in the world forever, and he’d nearly done it with _ her own element _. It was yet another thing to add to the long, long list of wrongs he’d committed.

He was torn between being proud of her and disappointed in himself when he realized that his wife had just over half of her soul and had been about to collapse from Light and she'd still beat him into the ground, reabsorbed a piece of her soul, gained thousands of years of memories... and found a way to save him.

He carefully sat on the bed next to his sleeping warrior, pulling the blankets up further to her chin when she shivered. He lightly soothed her soul with his own when it lashed out, flinching at the way her own hesitated before relaxing once more.

It was astounding how little she had changed since the fall of Amaurot, even in appearance. She’d never been petite, not with how much time she spent fighting, and without the healing creations they’d had back then, this version of her was scared, said with one look at her that her life had not been an easy one. Still, she was beautiful. Long raven locks, that he’d seldom seen down when she had been traveling the first spread across her pillow, and freckles dotted nearly every inch of her face. He’d wanted to kiss every freckle the first time he’d seen them. Hidden behind those lashes were the bluest eyes he’d ever seen, bright when she was laughing, her whole face lighting up, and stormy when he’d done something to anger her, thick eyebrows furrowing.

She was still amazing. When the white auracite had struck him, he'd felt the moment she broke just enough of it before it reached him to prevent the axe of light from killing him. A margin of error of less than a percent had been between his death, freeing him from Zodiark's tempering, and merely wounding him. That piece of her soul had wrapped itself around him, _ pulling _ for more from the Warrior and kept him contained until he could do it himself. Ever the guardian, his Phosphorus.

Unlike many of the other positions on the Convocation, her role had stretched beyond the lines of Amaurot. He would occasionally be called to another city to consult on anything from a building, to how to peacefully adjust a city from being ruled by a monarchy to a parliament, but she was always traveling. Similar to how Elidibus spent most of his time out of Amaurot as the Emissary, hers as Phosphorus had her negotiating between warring factions and crushing uprisings that wouldn't have benefitted the planet. It wasn't unheard of for her to side with a group other than Amaurot in an incident. They'd been fools ever to think she'd allow them to sacrifice the varied life on the planet for themselves, her very job had been to consider them all equally.

It was part of why he was unable to forgive himself for the things he'd said to her before the first sacrifice. He'd eagerly been part of the group that had prayed to Zodiark for the initial summoning, intent on proving to Persephone that she was wrong to worry, that their people would make this sacrifice and then everything would be fine. He could barely remember anything of her after that, and he knew it was Zodiark's influence. What had he said, or done, afterward that had been enough for Persephone to do what she had? To stop the bond, to _ cleave _ his soul from her own?

He hadn't even been able to _ remember her _ . More than anything else he'd done while he'd been tempered to Zodiark, it infuriated him that the primal had taken his wife from him. It’d taken her from _ all _ of them. How different would his choices have been, if he’d known who she was sooner?

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." The warrior let out a long, drawn-out and mostly asleep hushing. "Yer too loud."

Hades blinked at her in response. Had he been talking aloud?

"Brain loud. Jus go sleep. Come snuggle." Persephone was attempting to pull his body closer, one eye blearily peeking at him as she reached out to pull on his robes while also trying not to move from her position face-first into her pillow, now mostly buried under the blanket he’d covered her with.

"Talk in the mornin' if you're still here. For now, jus sleeeeep."

Hades didn't stop to consider it. It'd been a long, long time since he'd been able to just sleep next to Persephone, and he was exhausted. When was the last time he felt like he’d actually _ slept _? Suddenly the weight of millennia of sleeping next to an empty, cold side of the bed ate at him and he wanted nothing more than to feel the weight of someone he actually cared about. Pulling off his boots and tossing his jacket onto the chair nearby, he curled up next to his wife, wrapping himself around her, falling asleep faster than he had in a very long time.

\-----------------------

'Huh.' Persephone thought in the morning. She'd been mostly positive that Hades showing up in her room had been a dream, and that if it hadn't been, he would be gone in the morning before she woke. Judging from the arm tightly pulling her into the chest she was buried in, that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, Hades was acting a bit like if he didn't hold onto her, she might disappear.

Not that she was complaining. If she just closed her eyes, she could pretend they were back in their home, before everything went to ash. They'd delay getting out of bed for as long as possible because Hades had always been a procrastinator, and Persephone had never been a morning person. They might spend their day together, depending on what their jobs required, or it might be one of the days when they barely saw one another, stumbling into bed in the evening to relax and share and fall asleep in the other’s arms.

Life couldn't be perfect, but theirs had nearly been. It was a lot easier when she knew that if he’d walked away during a fight, one of them would come crawling back later, proverbial tail between their legs to apologize. 

Now all she had was crippling anxiety and self-worth issues.

“Hey,” Persephone whispered, looking into the golden eyes drinking her in. “I missed you,” she added softly, tangling her fingers in his hair. The hands around her waist pulled her impossibly closer as Hades buried his head to her chest.

“I’m glad you came. I’m sorry about before, I just… wanted to hurt you, I think. Y’shtola’s been teaching me how to control my aether more consciously, and since I half-remember how to do it it’s been going pretty quick. I’m sorry though. I should’ve realized… I’m just sorry.” Persephone pressed a kiss to the top of Hades’ head, breathing in his scent, something between sandalwood and cedar.

Hades turned his head up, golden eyes piercing through to her own. “No,” he said pausing for a moment. “I owe you an apology. I have committed too many wrongs as of late, but you are not one, and I would do well to remember that. I am used to relying on the bond to do my speaking for me, and without it, I struggle to not jump to conclusions.”

Persephone smiled softly, “As long as I am what you want Hades, I’ll be here. It’s been a long, long time since either of us has been in a relationship. I think we’re allowed a few panicked fights.”

It was never going to be easy for the two of them, not after everything they had been through. Everything they still had left to go through, but gods above, she still loved him just the same. Would do nearly _ anything _ for the man she knew held half her heart.

For now, though, Persephone pulled back on Hades’ hair _ just _ too tightly, just as he preferred. 

“I _ can _ think of other ways to talk, even without the bond.”

She smirked at the look on Hades’ face rapidly changing from bewildered to _ onboard _ when she leaned in for a kiss. Persephone bit at his lower lip as Hades’ right hand began its way up and down her back, causing her to gasp and dig her nails into his scalp while she battled him for control of their kiss. With a devilish smirk on her face, she flipped them so Hades was on his back while she straddled his waist.

“Mmm, I missed having _ these _ kinds of fights with you,” she muttered, trailing bites and kisses from Hades’ throat down to his chest, delighting in the breathy moans he released, his own hands tugging at her night shift. He growled as it got stuck, one hand briefly releasing its hold on her to snap his fingers. Persephone gasped at the cool air on her skin as her clothes vanished into aether before she looked down at him with a scowl.

“You could’ve done yourself as well you know,” she said as she leaned back against the hand tangling itself in her long hair, pulling it back and exposing her throat for Hades’ teeth and tongue, certainly leaving marks that she’d be left healing away later. Persephone retaliated by grinding her hips down against his own.

“I rather thought you were trying to do _ me _,” Hades replied as he sat up to lave at a nipple, leaving Persephone gasping before taking the opportunity to divest Hades of the simple black sleep shirt, momentarily pouting when it meant he’d had to part from her breast to help her pull the shirt over his head.

Persephone would like to say she didn’t freeze up momentarily, but it would be a lie. Hades was watching her watch him.

“It seems to have followed me into this vessel,” he said, gesturing to the massive mark that took up much of his chest, laying back on the bed. Persephone continued to stare at the scar that _ she’d _ put there. “I know what you’re thinking,” Hades began, trailing a hand along her side, “I’m still the sexiest man you’ve ever seen.” 

She coughed out a laugh, surprising even herself.

“I don’t know…” She said, teasing him as she leaned down to place a kiss on his mouth, “I’ve seen some _ interesting _ bodies since we last managed to tango, some of them had scars that I learned can be,” slowly, gently kissing her way down his body, “ _ sensitive _,” she said as she ran her tongue across the slightly puckered flesh. For all that there was a scar, it had the appearance of one long healed, soft and nearly as tan as the rest of his chest. Persephone quite enjoyed the long, drawn-out moan Hades released as she continued her way down, hands pulling at the tops of his pants.

“Do I _ want _ to know just how you came to see those bodies?” he gasped out, causing her to pause as she looked up at him. “Is now really when you want to have that conversation?” 

She managed to free him from his pants and gave him a long, swirling lick the moment she could. 

“Ah, no! Zodiark above, Persephone!”

“Hmm, I didn’t think so.” She murmured, before diving down and enjoying the obscene wet noises she made, intentionally keeping an inconsistent rhythm, refusing to let him get used to the sensation.

She looked up into his half-lidded eyes when he said, “Don’t think-” Hades broke off with a moan, “I don’t know what you’re doing.” Hades sat up, pulling her off him by her hair, forcing her to arch backward before he flipped their positions. “You can distract me all you want, my dear Heathen,” which he was doing an incredible job at himself, as he was now pressing his weight against hers, lavishing one nipple with his tongue as his fingers twisted and pulled at her other one, “but all I am hearing is that there are memories I need to _ replace _ your daydreams.” He moved to kiss her instead, his tongue resuming its battle with her own, one hand reaching for both of hers.

“You will keep these hands up here, or I will make sure they _ stay _ there,” Hades said, and Persephone wiggled at the implied threat. “Why, what’re you going to do if I _ don’t _?” she asked, one hand evading his grasp and trying to pull him closer. It’d been too long since she’d felt his skin on hers and here he was just taunting her with it. “You think I do not remember just how to build you up,” Hades said, pulling her hand off him and putting it with the other, tightly in his grasp, “and up, and up, over and over again?”

“That,” Persephone gasped as Hades licked a long line up from her navel to her neck, biting just shy of hard enough to draw blood as he moved her hands to the bedposts, “sounds more like a reward than a punishment.”

“Is it?” He whispered, moving up to suck momentarily on her ear, before continuing, “We’ll see if that’s still what you think by the time I’m done reminding you just how many times you can come before you _ beg _ me to stop and just fuck you already.”

Hades leaned back to admire the way her hands above body stretched it out, devouring her with his eyes. After several long moments, she let out a small whine at his continued inaction, and he tsked at her before ever. so. slowly. Teasing a hand so close to her clit, ghosting over it without giving her any pressure.

“Gods, I hate you.” she moaned, determined not to beg. She wouldn’t be giving him the satisfaction of that, not yet. Hades slid a finger through her slick folds, dipping a finger briefly into her hole, not quite deep enough, leaving Persephone to thrust against his hand, seeking more pressure.

Hades hummed, considering. He paused his agonizing slow thrusting to snap his fingers, leaving her hands tied to either bedpost of the bed. “Much better,” he said, before hauling her legs over his shoulders.

Without hesitation he dove straight for her clit, alternating between sucking and teasing his tongue around it. “You are such,” she moaned as he paused to bite at the thighs attempting to squeeze him closer, “a fucking tease.”

“So cruel, Warrior of Light, were you this nasty to the other men you had in your bed? Did they get off on _ fucking _ the hero? Or were you oh so sweet to them, _ making love? _Whispering sweet nothings in their ear?” He taunted, all the while thrusting two fingers into her, leaving Persephone to arch further off the bed.

“Who says-”, she broke off momentarily, “Fuccccck Hades,” He’d curled his fingers inside her, slowly, so slowly thrusting them against that oh so perfect spot inside, tongue flicking against her, “Who says that it was only men?”

Hades growled in response, dropping her legs and crawling up her body to aggressively kiss her instead, a hand reaching back down to quickly rub at her. Persephone came with a moan around the tongue in her mouth, Hades slowing but not stopping the hand working away at her, teasing her overly sensitive clit into coming a second time before pulling back, Persephone trying to catch her breath, but slowly beginning to work her way to escape the ties at her wrists.

“Do you like that idea, Hades?” She asked, rubbing her legs along his, “Knowing that it wasn’t just men who I took to bed while we were apart, that sometimes it was women, with their soft skin and sweet curves?” Persephone nearly had a wrist free as she watched his irises blow wide, “What if I told you that Viera have the most _ sensitive _ ears and that Miqo’te _ purr _ when they finish? Just imagine if I told you it was them both _ at the same time _,” she leaned as far forward as she could, whispering into his ear, using the distraction to finish freeing her other hand. 

“_ Now _ ,” she said wrapping her legs around his and flipping them back over, “I think I should remind you that you have a _ grandson _ ,” Persephone began to slowly lower herself down on the hardness that had been pressing against her, reveling in the groan Hades let out, “which means you are _ not so innocent _ either,” she began to ride against him, loving the way he filled and stretched her. She leaned forward so that her breasts hung just above his face, gasping when he leaned forward to suck on a nipple. She was moving intentionally slow, refusing to meet the pace that Hades’ hands on her hips were trying to set, pulling back when his hips thrust forward.

“‘_ Sephone,” _Hades pled her name, “Is that the name you called out then too?” She asked, as sweetly as possible, “Was it my name on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach as it was for me?” 

She didn’t relent until he hissed out a “Yes”, finally increasing her speed, unable to resist meeting him thrust for thrust, letting him pull nearly all the way out before slamming back down, before quickly her own orgasm was taking her over, leaving her practically boneless while Hades’ hands on her hips dug in, guiding her to his own finish.

Persephone sat on his hips, both of them gasping for breath before slowly moved off him, leaving Hades to groan, as she headed over to her washbasin to clean off, eyeing the hedon still sprawled across her bed.

“Come back,” Hades called, eyes trailing up and down her body, cataloging all the things he’d scarcely had time to notice before. She saw him linger on the scar across her abdomen, still nearly as fresh as his own had been.

“Zenos,” she said softly, gesturing toward it as she padded back across the room, climbing into the bed and curling back up to his side. “Right before the Exarch called me here, we were fighting, and I was too distracted by losing Alisaie to really pay attention. My own stupid fault. But I don’t want to talk about that right now. Right now, if it’s alright with you, I’d just like to lay together and take a nap. _ Someone _ woke me up in the middle of the night.”

Hades huffed a laugh, but said, “I would like nothing more.”

**Author's Note:**

> I did the thing. I wrote the smut.
> 
> Mega thanks to Starships for beta'ing this for me! My love for that is endless. <3 <#
> 
> Hey! Do you read FFXIV fics (I know you do, you're reading this)? Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/GsPXrc5  
We're a gang of FFXIV readers/writers/artists/game players who are all incredibly supportive of each other and somehow both thirsty and wholesome! (I may or may not have made an Emet-Selch bot~~~ )


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